New Smyrna collector to bid farewell to hundreds of items in auction

Saturday

Aug 24, 2013 at 7:06 PMAug 24, 2013 at 11:16 PM

By RICHARD CONNrichard.conn@news-jrnl.com

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Kirk White’s garage is far from empty, but it’s comparatively barren now that he’s decided to part with more than 400 collectibles — from toy trains to tether cars — he amassed over several decades.Stepping foot into White’s riverfront home in New Smyrna Beach it’s quickly apparent, however, that he doesn’t want to be considered a recovering collector.“Obviously I didn’t get cured because all these boxes are filled with new things I just bought,” he said. The majority of White’s vast and diverse collection, which could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, will be auctioned off Wednesday in Auburn, Ind. Racing memorabilia, rare vintage toys, early model trains, early 20th century advertising displays and paintings are among the items that will be on the auction block. White said he’s parting with the bulk of his collection out of consideration for he and his wife Marilyn’s five children. “If prior to this auction being put together something had happened to us, it just would have been a nightmare to liquidate it,” he said.A 1930 model of a Mercedes SSK — one of only 25 ever made — and a model of the Miss Daytona speedboat, measuring 47 inches in length and dating back to 1940, are among the prized pieces. Both could bring bids well over $10,000.“All of his items are no-reserve items, so everything is going to sell,” said Tyler Dove, memorabilia manager with Auctions America. White won’t part with what started his collecting kick, a white, gas engine-powered tether car he purchased for $150 at a flea market in the 1970s in his native Pennsylvania. “I’ve had, God, I don’t know, 2 or 3,000 of these things,” he said. “It just sunk a hook into me that lasted forever.” White became a “speedway rat” growing up around racetracks in southeastern Pennsylvania. He raced midget cars and hot rods when he was a teenager. While he started out his professional career in the insurance field, his love of cars never waned and he would become sales manager at a Ferrari and Maserati dealership in Philadelphia. He eventually opened up Kirk F. White Motorcars, buying and selling European competition cars. Among the items left in White’s garage is a blown-up photograph of an invoice from Dec. 1970, when he purchased a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO for $7,770. Unhappy because the car was a right-side drive, he sold it to a friend days later in Great Britain for $12,000. “That car today is worth $35 to $36 million,” he said, seemingly without a twinge of regret. Another Ferrari — one without quite such an exorbitant price tag — led to one of White’s proudest moments, teaming with motorsports legend Roger Penske. White provided and sponsored — along with Sunoco — a Ferrari 512M, painted blue and yellow, that raced in the 1971 24 Hours of Daytona. “This thing was amazing because it was our first venture into auto racing,” he said. “It was like coming right out of the box and being signed by the New York Yankees.”Part of White’s collection that will be up for auction is a one-off painting from artist Nicholas Watts of the White/Penske Ferrari captured at dawn during a heavy downpour at the Daytona race and held together by duct tape after a big wreck. Bidding on that painting and other items in White’s collection starts at 11 a.m. Those who can’t attend the auction can bid by phone or online. White will attend the auction in Indiana. It will be somewhat bittersweet. “There’s some there I’ll want to be out of the room when it goes,” he said. White accumulated much of his collection before the Internet. He put out full-page ads, traveled extensively and eventually developed a contact list of like-minded wheelers and dealers. “Anything that I gained interest in, I would go after it really hard,” White said. “I would find everybody that was in the hobby, all the collections, visit them. I tried to get educated on the subject.”It took about two years to catalog and photograph all the pieces that will be auctioned off next week, White said. It’s not just the automotive-related collectibles that White said he will be sorry to see go. Parting with a figurine of a 1930s Broadway showgirl was also difficult. “When she left it broke my heart,” he said.White’s wife is a painter, however, and was able to create a perfect likeness of the high-stepping dancer. “So she’s back,” he said, smiling.